Aspen Institute Publications
Aspen Institute publications are listed below. Many are available for purchase through Google Checkout, a secure system for handling credit card transaction online. For assistance with ordering publications, please contact our Publications office by email or by phone at (410) 820.5433. Please note: Orders are shipped two times a week from our warehouse in Queenstown, MD, on the Eastern Shore.
Rethinking Communications Regulation
As the Internet and other information and communications technologies grow exponentially, and as a new ecosystem is emerging that could conflate previously distinct methods of communication into a single digital medium, questions arise as to whether the traditional silos of regulation are still appropriate. The report resulting from the 27th Annual Aspen Institute Communications Policy Conference addresses the overarching concern as to whether the Communications Act needs a radical revision. Written by rapporteur Richard Adler, the report considers the key goals of a new communications regime and offers regulatory and non-regulatory approaches for achieving these goals in a digitally connected world.
Power-Curve Society: The Future of Innovation, Opportunity and Social Equity in the Emerging Networked Economy
This report examines how technological innovation is restructuring productivity and the social and economic impact resulting from these changes. It addresses the growing concern about the technological displacement of jobs, stagnant middle class income, and wealth disparities in an emerging "winner-take-all" economy. It also examines cutting-edge innovations in personal data ecosystems that could potentially unlock a revolutionary wave of individual economic empowerment. "Power-Curve Society" is the Report of the Twenty-First Annual Roundtable on Information Technology, a dialogue convened by the Communications and Society Program.
Creating A Faculty Culture of Student Success
This guide describes how leading community colleges have created cultures in which faculty members consistently work to reform and improve their teaching in ways that measurably improve student learning. It provides a look at some innovative approaches, including the unusual tenure process at Valencia College - winner of the 2011 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence – which is built around a system that requires faculty members to use data and experiment with their own teaching in ways that will improve student learning, and supports them along the way.
Microenterprise Development as Job Creation
This report, funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation as part of the “Big Ideas for Jobs” project, details the role that microbusinesses – firms that employ five of fewer workers – play in supporting jobs. Based on interviews with nearly 2000 microbusinesses that received assistance from community-based microenterprise development organizations, the report describes key findings including the numbers of jobs supported, wages paid to workers, and the income drawn by owners.
Summary Report from the Aspen Consultation on Health, Food Security and Population in the Post-2015 Development Agenda
In January 2013, the Summary Report from the Aspen Consultation on Health, Food Security and Population in the Post-2015 Development Agenda was submitted to each of the UN task teams charged with advising the Secretary General's High Level Panel on the issues of health, food security, population dynamics, inequalities, education and environmental sustainability.
The Report was a synthesis of a consulation that took place in December 2012, when Aspen Global Health and Development convened a distinguished group of public- and private-sector experts to provide input on the post-2015 development agenda. Participants focused on the interrelated issues of health, food security and population dynamics, but the wide-ranging conversation encompassed many of this century's most pressing challenges.
The recommendations of the Aspen Consultation Summary Report were particularly visible in the draft report by the Task Team of the Global Thematic Consultation on Health, including in the Task Team's illumination of the linkages between reproductive health and other development sectors:
"The following example illustrates the multiple benefits that universal access to reproductive health services and protection of reproductive rights would bring. People's, and especially women’s, right to decide the number of children they wish to have (and are able to afford) is a basic human right. Countries that have fully supported this right tend to have a lower total fertility rate. Smaller families benefit women's and children's health and make it easier for health systems in low resource contexts to serve their populations. Among other things, having fewer children empowers women to participate in society, complete their education, and access formal employment, giving them an independent income. It also contributes to human development by reducing household poverty. Smaller families slow population growth, which in turn reduces demand for water, food, and energy; alleviate pressures on education and the environment; diminish social conflict and state fragility; and reduce climate change and mitigate its impact."
(Draft Report of the Task Team of the Global Consultation on Health in the Post-2015 Agenda, p. 15)
Partners for a New Beginning 2013 Status Report
As Partners for a New Beginning (PNB) concludes its second year, it is with great excitement that we will present our 2013 Status Report highlighting the collective work of the initiative and its partners around the world.
Income Patching among Microentrepreneurs
How are microentrepreneurs combining self- and wage employment in today’s economic context? This issue of our Trendlines series uses data from FIELD’s microTracker client outcomes survey to analyze how “income patching” has been used by microenterprise program clients in recent years. The brief publication discusses topics such as characteristics of patchers and their business outcomes, including hours worked, changes in revenues, and the creation of paid work for others.
Aspen Guide for Using Labor Market Data to Improve Student Success
Community colleges have a unique opportunity to enable students to acquire the skills they need to land good jobs with strong wages, but colleges can only fulfill this promise if they are taking advantage of available data to tailor their educational programs to current labor market needs and measure the labor market outcomes of their graduates. This guide explains how colleges can improve student labor market success after graduating, offering concrete examples and describing six data sets that colleges can use today.
Electricity: Seeking Progress Amid Uncertainty
The 2012 Forum, “Electricity: Seeking Progress amid Uncertainty,” was chaired by Ernest J. Moniz, Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems, and Director of the Energy Initiative at MIT. Topics included regulatory issues affecting the financial model of utilities, the obstacles to the moves toward greater energy efficiency, the challenge of meeting energy and water needs simultaneously, factors affecting utility choices between coal and gas, and the challenges of financing new development.
